Property Tax Appeal

What Are The Measures Available To Reduce Property Tax

Property tax appeals can help redress the wrong done to property owners by way of incorrect municipal property value assessments. In case property owners win the appeal cases before the state board of property tax appeals, it can reduce property tax that they would have otherwise paid to the local government. Such property tax reduction is available to property owners only if the municipality assessed value is at least 15% higher than the proven true market value of the properties.

In some cases the above requirement is met primarily because incorrect property tax classifications were applied by the municipal assessor to arrive at the inflated assessment value of the properties. In such cases, property owners can also win the appeals case, if their lawyers are able to prove the incorrect application of the tax classifications.

However, besides the above, the governments themselves provide certain relief measures under certain conditions to certain category of property owners to reduce the property tax that they have to pay. Such measures include homestead exemptions or equivalent credit, property tax deferral programs available to elderly property owners, and property tax circuit breakers.

Exemptions reduce your property tax outgo by reducing a portion of the assessed value of a property. Tax rebates offset a portion of the property tax paid by providing you a refund. Property tax abatement also helps reduce property tax by providing you with a credit against the tax liability.

Homeowners who are senior citizens and those disabled who both are above a certain age cap and who are subject to a certain income cap are entitled to homestead exemption on the property tax. Besides this, homestead exemption is also available to property owning disabled veterans regardless of their age. Subject to a maximum of a certain percentage of their assessed property value, such exemption is also available to veterans.

You can also reduce property tax reduce mortgage payments by distributing these payments in 12 equal monthly installments rather than paying all of them in full in the form of a single annual amount through a bank. In this case you save interest on the money that the bank would otherwise keep with itself.

In some states, an exemption on property tax is available to property owners who reside in buildings having national heritage status. The governments of these states have provided this exemption to provide for the maintenance and upkeep of the historic buildings under their ownership.

So, the governments at the local and state level help you reduce property tax through various measures. Some of these measures are available only in certain states and provide you substantial relief, whereas other measures provide only nominal relief.